Sunday, August 23, 2015

That my story "Championship B'tok" made it onto the final ballot for this year's Hugo awards? It was a surprise and an honor, notwithstanding the accompanying puppygate controversy. To share the novelette category with four such fine stories -- including two by fellow Analog-ians Mike Flynn and Rajnar Vajra -- only enhanced the honor.

2007 version

That was April. It's now August, and the votes have been counted. Thomas Olde Heuvelt will be taking home the rocket. Let me be among the first to congratulate him.

That's all I'll say for now about the news ... but in a few days, I may have something to add.

Are you done with steampunk? (That's SF re-imagined as though progress ended with Victorian science and technology.) Editors Thomas A. Easton and Judith K. Dial were ... and they put out the call for SF stories set in a later, but still retro era. The result -- and see the gorgeous cover nearby -- was Deco Punk: The Spirit of the Age. My contribution to the anthology was "Judy Garland Saves the World (And I Don't Mean Oz)."

I had so much fun with that foray into the era between the World Wars that I tried my hand at another such story. That became "Soap Opera," in an upcoming (but as yet unscheduled) issue of Analog.

Analog, of course, is a frequent home of my shorter writings. So you'll likely not be surprised that I have more things in their pipeline:

Monday, August 3, 2015

I read mostly SF and current science/technology. For a change of pace, I
recently pulled off my shelf a thick volume that I had forgotten even
owning. It's been years -- at the least -- since I bought it.

The Discoverers: A History of Man's Search to Know His World and Himself,
by Daniel J. Boorstin, is as ambitious as the title suggests. Boorstin,
if the name isn't familiar, was Librarian of Congress from 1975 to
1987. An historian, educated at Harvard, Oxford, and Yale, his writing
is as solid and meticulously detailed as anyone could want -- and for
all its encyclopedic depth and breadth, eminently readable.The Discoverers takes on -- and admirably discharges -- the
project of surveying how our modern scientific understanding came
about. It's a scholarly salute to the pioneers of dozens of fields, from
explorers to clock makers to archeologists to ... you name it.

Beyond fascinating and cogent introductions to many scientific topics,
and the often quirky biographies of the key players, Boorstin provides
context. Why did a particular advance occur when it did? Why in one part
of the world, or in a particular culture, and not others? How did
deference to Ptolemy, Aristotle, Galen, and Confucius, among many,
inform -- or impede -- the development of science? How did prevailing
beliefs, both religious and philosophical, advance or impede particular
revolutions in thought? How did seemingly disjoint scientific awakenings
pave the way for whole new disciplines?

The Discoverers examines geographical exploration, the invention
of objective methods of measurement, standardization of calendars and
chronologies (how else can one even hope to talk about world history?),
evolution, economics, anthropology, the discovery of prehistory,
advances in astronomy, and much more.

But beyond its fascinating narratives and diverting anecdotes, The Discoverers
offers food for thought. Throughout mankind's millennia-long career,
the common understanding(s) of our world's true nature has undergone
revolution upon revolution. Much that we moderns immodestly take to be
proven fact is of very recent vintage. Most science dates back no more
than a few centuries -- and some branches are younger than that. Peer
back even a few decades at what was then perceived wisdom, and it looks
quaint. Cutting-edge technology from that same era already often seems
primitive. It's enough to make one wonder: how much of what we feel
certain about today will likewise seem misguided mere decades hence?

What to read?

Non-US shoppers

Featured Post: A Milestone

On October 16, 2007, Fleet of Worlds was first published. That is: ten years ago to the day. Larry and Ed at 2015 Nebula weekend This...

Energized (Newly reissued!)

"A taut near-future thriller about an energy-starved Earth held hostage by a power-mad international cartel … Lerner’s vision of the future is both topical and possible in this crisp, fast-paced hard SF adventure.” —Publishers Weekly

Dark Secret (my latest)

"I heartily recommend Ed Lerner's Dark Secret" — Tangent Online

InterstellarNet: Enigma (I-Net #3)

"One of the most rewarding SF reading experiences anyone could ask for, on both an intellectual and emotional level." — Tangent Online

InterstellarNet: Origins (I-Net #1)

"One of the most original, believable, thoroughly thought-out, and utterly fascinating visions ever of what interstellar contact might really be like."— Stanley Schmidt, editor of Analog

A Time Foreclosed

"A nice little foray into the paradoxes of time travel" — SFRevu

Fate of Worlds (FOW #5)

“Brings to a stunning close a multivolume saga that has captured the imaginations of a multitude of readers … a story that will attract attention from series fans as well as readers of hard sf.” — Library Journal

Juggler of Worlds (FoW #2)

“A snazzy thriller/mystery that keeps us (and our hero) guessing until the very end ... Wide screen galactic scope, nifty super-science, crafty aliens, corporate corruption and cover ups, and a multi-leveled spy vs. spy vs. spy mystery with little being as it first appears make Juggler of Worlds a first class exemplar of pure SF entertainment.” —SFsite

Fleet of Worlds (FoW #1)

" ... Needs recommending within the science fiction community about as much as a new Harry Potter novel does – well, anywhere." —Locus

ARMAGEDDON / PARADISE -- two books in one

"A romp through time and history ... an intriguing selection." — Bookloons

Small Miracles

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Fools' Experiments

“When the artificial intelligences ... go maverick, they turn out to be the true weapons of mass destruction. A fast, fun read.” — Sci Fi Weekly

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About Me

I'm a physicist and computer scientist (and an MBA, of less relevance to most of these posts). After thirty years in industry, as everything from individual technical contributor to senior vice president, I now write full-time. Mostly I write science fiction and techno-thrillers, now and again throwing in a straight science or technology article.